


Nature of the stars

by Amrei



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Showdown, Rumbelle Showdown 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:09:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6478816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrei/pseuds/Amrei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle wished she could believe that the stars were truly nothing more than met the eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nature of the stars

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the first round of the Rumbelle Showdown 2016.
> 
>  **Prompts:** Seasons change, tears fall, be my disaster, capricorn

Belle wished she could believe that the stars were truly nothing more than met the eye.

She’d always loved stories of course, of how the brave maiden Feralen had been cast into the night sky by a jealous sorceress, or how the moon starved herself, yearning for the sun, only to be reborn and fall in love anew.

But Belle had also started to value the books that taught her the true reason behind all those little secrets she could discovered all around her from a young age. Of course magic was real, no one with eyes to see and ears to hear could truly doubt it, but no matter how much people seemed to like to explain everything with it, magic truly only played a small part in the world at large.

Thunder developed from a mixture of warm, wet air and friction, not at any god’s whim and pulsating springs were brought to life by magma and pressure instead of a spirit’s ire. She really wanted to believe that the stars, too, were nothing but suns, globes of burning gas farther away than she could ever imagine, just as the alchemists claimed, but she couldn’t, not truly.

Not when she still remembered how her mother had taken her to the seer when she was still a girl too small to truly understand the meaning of the prevision and the old woman had looked first at the star chart of the day of her birth, Capricorn towering proudly in the centre, then at her hand and suddenly sorrow had clouded her eyes.

“Darkness will smother her, should she ever gift her heart to a man and great despair will rob her of even the last rest of peace.”

The words had made little sense to her back then, but the fear in her mother’s eyes had stayed with Belle even after she had died and so she had made herself a promise: Truth or not, she would never risk her heart.

The seasons changed and as it turned out her vow was no great hardship for her to uphold. They changed and with the war came more and more tears and when the possibility of help was finally presented in the form of pompous, but kind Gaston, Belle agreed easily. The engagement did not only promise additional troops for the everlasting fight against the ogres, but also the possibility of a comfortable existence; a friendship without any danger of her losing her heart.

The seasons changed once more and even the troops Gaston had led to Avonlea were long defeated, when the imp appeared and took with his deal even the chance of this comfortable marriage away. In the end it was no real choice at all, though; her people would be rescued and her heart forever save.

The seasons changed and the awaited despair simply would not come. Instead there were libraries and roses and shy smiles and adventure; everything she had never dared to ask for and all Rumplestiltskin’s talk of him simply wanting to keep her biddable– _a weeping maid is simply the most tedious thing, dearie!_ \- could not change a thing about that.

The seasons changed and suddenly Belle became aware that her heart wasn’t safe at all anymore and the realisation was in equal parts dazzling excitement and sickening dreed. And for the first time since she had been a little girl, she caught herself seriously wondering about the true nature of the stars.

If being a sorcerer’s maid – companion, friend, possibly lover – had taught her anything at all, though, it was that magic was subjected to rules just like any other force in the world and one evening when he puffed his pipe on one of the narrow balconies of the east tower, she sat down next to him and looked up to the sky.

“Do you believe in fate, Rumplestiltskin? That our future is written in the stars?”

He scoffed at her words with such unaffected aversion as she hadn’t heard before. “The stars, pah! I won’t let anyone dictate my fate again, be it fairies or omens or men that think too much of themselves!” Belle met his gaze and there was nothing but hard determinedness in his gaze. “There is such a thing as star-scrying, but as one who sees the future, let me tell you this: Nothing to come is set in stone and only a true fool would hand over his choices because of a seer’s words.” Rumplestiltskin quieted suddenly and the fiery animation left him from one moment to the other, as he remembered his audience.

“Why do you ask, has one of your books convinced you that there’s still a hero in the cards for you, just waiting to save you from the monster?” His tone was mocking, but for all his cruel sneering, his eyes were weary, as he searched her face for answers. “I fear I have a much surer prediction for you: There’s going to be a great disappointment in your near future!”

Despite herself Belle felt a smile bloom on her face. He could sputter all he liked, but the anxious look in his eyes belied all his other antics. Her heart fluttered at the realisation that he, too, was insecure in this, that he was as anxious for her to stay at his side, as she was.

“Not exactly”, she finally answered, smile still on her face. “But I’m not quite sure, whether I am able to just ignore such a thing. I would like to, truly”, she bit her lip, hard, as she struggled to find the words that would explain the jumble of her thoughts and the muddle of her feelings. “I would like to, but I don’t think I can simply forget all I was taught about such things.” She grinned at him and when he returned her smile, unsure and obviously not quite certain where she was going with her little speech, suddenly everything seemed so simple.

“Even you, great sorcerer, admitted that there is some truth to it, after all, but I think it’s a risk I am willing to take.” Belle steeled herself and took his hand, squeezing it. His skin was dry and smoother than she would have thought against her own and his puzzled expression only revealed all too clearly that he had no real idea what she had been talking about. He didn’t let go of her all the same.

Maybe the stars were truly nothing more than met the eye, maybe not, but for this, for small gestures and wondrous tales and someone who truly listened, she was willing to take the risk and face the consequences. He could be her disaster; as long as he let her stay by his side, she would not complain.


End file.
